Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most original writers in the history of American letters, a genius who was tragically misunderstood in his lifetime. He was a seminal figure in the development of science fiction and the detective story, and exerted a great influence on Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, and Charles Baudelaire, who championed him long before Poe was appreciated in his own country. Baudelaire's enthusiasm brought Poe a wide audience in Europe, and his writing came to have enormous importance for modern French literature. This edition includes his most well-known works--''The Raven,'' ''The Pit and the Pendulum,'' ''Annabel Lee,'' ''The Fall of the House of Usher,'' ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue''--as well as less-familiar stories, poems, and essays.